Fig. 4
From: Molecular architecture of the PBP2–MreC core bacterial cell wall synthesis complex
Determination of the effects of the 3A and 3D mutations on MreC’s hydrophobic zipper on H. pylori. a The mreC3A and mreC3D conditional mutants (N6 mreC3A pMEG4 and N6 mreC3D pMEG4) were grown in the presence or absence of IPTG (1 mM). Cell shape was monitored by scanning electron microscopy (representative images of bacteria after 24 h of growth are illustrated) and compared to the wild-type strain N6 pILL2150. b The control strain N6 pILL2150, the conditional mreC mutant (N6 ∆mreC pMEG4), and the 3A mutant (N6 mreC3A pMEG4) were grown in liquid culture in the presence or absence of IPTG. Viable bacteria were monitored by measuring the number of colony forming units (CFU/mL) as a function of time of growth (h); c, d Changes in cell shape in the presence or absence of IPTG (1 mM) were monitored by measuring bacterial cell diameter using the ImageJ software. Each dot represents the measured diameter (c) and length (d) of one individual bacterium. The difference in diameter (and length) in the presence or absence of IPTG was statistically significant for strains N6 ∆mreC pMEG4 and N6 mreC3A pMEG4 (unpaired two-tailed student t-test; ns = not significant; ***P < 0.0001 with a minimum of 100 bacteria being measured per strain and per growth condition). All other strains behaved similarly to the control strain N6 pILL2150
